The House Administration, Judiciary and Oversight committees released an interim report alleging ActBlue’s passport verification checked only number format, not authenticity, potentially allowing foreign donations to slip through. The report cites internal guidance to "give the donor the benefit of the doubt" despite multiple red flags and documents showing at least 22 significant fraud campaigns. ActBlue disputes the findings, pointing to a third-party review and data suggesting 99.99% of 2023 contributions included a U.S. address or passport number. The congressional inquiry, opened in 2023, is ongoing.
House Committees Say ActBlue’s Weak Passport Checks May Have Let Foreign Donations Through
House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis. (Getty)
Three House committees released an interim staff report alleging that ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising platform, maintained inadequate fraud-prevention controls that may have allowed foreign political contributions to bypass safeguards.
Report Findings
The joint interim report from the House Administration, Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees says ActBlue’s passport-verification system validated only the format of a passport number (for example, character count) rather than verifying that a number corresponded to a genuine U.S. passport or checking it against government databases.
Committee staff also cited internal communications indicating supervisors repeatedly told fraud-analysts to "give the donor the benefit of the doubt" even when donations showed multiple warning signs such as IP/billing mismatches, foreign payment cards and unusual email domains.
"One ActBlue employee noted that a donor who 'has a few red flags, such as IP/billing mismatch and a concerning IP provider name, a foreign credit card, an odd email domain, and [is] connected to other rejected users via browser fingerprint,' should be accepted because ActBlue 'can't say for sure that this is fraud.'"
Specific Concerns Cited
Investigators said the weak verification could allow foreign actors to enter arbitrary number combinations and make unlawful contributions to U.S. political campaigns. The report also noted at least 22 significant fraud campaigns in recent years, some traced to foreign sources.
Records reviewed by committee staff reportedly showed instances in which ActBlue accepted contributions supported by an expired Form 225-A (Card of Identity and Registration) from 1974 and a local birth certificate but without a U.S. passport number.
ActBlue Response
ActBlue disputed the report. In a statement to Newsmax, the platform pointed to a third-party forensic review of its 2023 contribution data and compliance records and noted that 99.99% of nearly $990 million in political contributions that year came from donors who provided either a U.S. address or a passport number. ActBlue also said 0.13% of contribution dollars that year came from Americans living abroad and that its compliance team follows up when addresses appear foreign.
Congressional Testimony And Next Steps
ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones testified to the House Administration Committee in November 2023 that the platform’s multilayered vetting required passport information from donors providing an address outside the U.S. But when Wallace-Jones returned to testify on June 10, she invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to answer lawmakers’ questions. She has said pleading the Fifth is not an admission of guilt and characterized the investigation as politically motivated.
The three committees said their investigation is ongoing.
Sources: Interim staff report from the House Administration, Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees; statements from ActBlue; coverage by Newsmax and The Federalist.
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